I still love this vet practice. Our dogs continue to be clients of Sunnycrest Animal Care Center,…read moreand we are very happy with the clinic. The staff are kind, the techs clearly care about our dogs, and we especially love Dr. Boram Lee. Our sweet girl recently had a sudden eye issue that scared us half to death, and Dr. Lee did an excellent job diagnosing and treating her. She clearly cares and works hard. We've also had good experiences with Dr. Tomko and Dr. Gaertner.
That said, embedded in this 5-star experience is a very serious 1-star experience with Dr. Blanco, and I feel obligated to be very clear about it so other pet owners are aware. I hope all of your pets are able to avoid the negative outcome our poor pup experienced.
A couple of years ago, we brought our other dog in because he was squinting and clearly uncomfortable. We suspected autoimmune dry eye (KCS), which is common in his breed, and we told her we had been giving him lubricating eye drops around the clock, which were helping.
She was extremely dismissive and demeaning. She literally said to me, "Why would you want a dog with dry eyes?"--even though she herself has a dog with KCS. Instead of taking our concerns seriously, she insisted it was allergies (which, based on later visits, seems to be her default diagnosis even without clear signs). He never has had symptoms of allergies then or even now. She shamed me for even looking into the cause of his discomfort and scoffed when she found out my profession in the medical field, as if I was overstepping by trying to figure out what was going on with my dog. I simply was trying to provide him relief while waiting for the weekend to be over so he could get to the vet.
She performed a dry eye test and said it was normal. What we later learned is that the test was invalid because we had given him lubricating drops beforehand. She knew this--we told her, and she documented it--but she did not tell us that it would invalidate the test, did not instruct us to stop drops beforehand, and did not repeat the test properly.
Over multiple subsequent visits, we kept asking the same questions: Why is he squinting all the time? Why is there brown pigmentation developing in his eyes?
Every time, it was dismissed. No real investigation, no change in plan.
This year, when our other dog had an eye issue, Dr. Boram Lee immediately diagnosed dry eye and explicitly told us not to give lubricating drops before testing. She also tested our first dog, and his dry eye was significantly worse and clearly had been going on for a while.
We took him to a veterinary ophthalmologist today, who confirmed the outcome: he now has vision impairment from chronic, untreated dry eye. He has a large area of pigment (about 1 cm) blocking his vision and fibrosis causing overall haziness. We were told this damage is largely irreversible and was very much preventable with appropriate diagnosis and treatment earlier.
So to be clear: our dog spent years squinting and in pain--essentially feeling like he had sand in his eyes--while being dismissed. And now, at 7 years old, he has permanent vision loss that could have been avoided.
We took our concerns to the head of the clinic, Dr. Glassberg, who was gracious and had a dignified balance between being supportive of his employee but also acknowledging our concerns.
I still recommend Sunnycrest because we have had genuinely excellent care from other vets there. But I would strongly advise avoiding Dr. Blanco.
This was not just bad bedside manner. This was a missed diagnosis with real consequences. If she cannot correctly diagnose a condition her own dog has--and dismisses owners raising valid concerns--there is a serious issue.
There is no way to undo the damage.
However, with clear evidence from the specialist that this resulted from untreated dry eye, I am hopeful the practice will take full accountability and step in to assist with these costs. His condition could have easily been managed by a general vet, but now we have to see the specialist to try to recover whatever we can.
I wish there were a way to turn back time and prevent this vision loss, but sadly I do not have this option and it breaks my heart. I thought if I was attentive to my dogs and got them regular veterinary care, these outcomes could be avoided. I'm heartbroken that despite constant vigilance and repeated veterinary visits, this preventable outcome occurred. Now, I will trust my instincts instead of blindly trusting professionals and aim to only get my dogs care from vets I truly trust.
I still love Sunnycrest and am a happy client there, but please heed my warning about Dr. Blanco and maybe my dog's suffering can save yours from a bad outcome. If sharing this prevents even one pet from going through what ours did, it's worth it.
